CNN’s global series i-List takes you to a different country each month. In February, we visit Germany and look at changes shaping the country’s economy, culture and social fabric.

(CNN) — To an outsider, lederhosen and dirndl — the traditional costumes of Bavaria — may seem like an outdated symbol of a bygone age, last seen in “The Sound of Music.”

But the outfits — short leather dungarees for men and wide skirts with corsets for women — have become must-haves for the young and fashion-conscious of Munich in south Germany.

They are particularly popular at Oktoberfest, Munich’s annual beer festival attracting 6.4 million visitors, and increasingly at fashionable parties and weddings.

The German edition of Vogue magazine regularly features Bavarian costumes in its September issue, according to Simone Egger, a researcher in cultural studies, and shops open around the city every August specifically to sell Oktoberfest costumes.

When you see someone in dirndl or lederhosen they look wonderful.
–Lola Paltinger, fashion designer

Lola Paltinger, a designer who sells couture dirndls for 2,500 euros, or about $3,440, said: “When I first went to Oktoberfest everyone was in jeans. The only traditional costumes were dark, sad and unfashionable.

“Now they come in bright colors, modern designs and are more comfortable. It still has a wide skirt and a corset, but it’s one you can breathe, eat and drink in.”

Paltinger began designing dirndls as a project at her fashion college, and after an apprenticeship with Vivienne Westwood, began her own business.

She said: “I was sitting outside at the Oktoberfest with my friends talking about what we were going to do for our diplomas. The atmosphere of the Oktoberfest got to me and I just thought of doing traditional costumes.”

When she started her business 11 years ago, Paltinger sold about 20 dirndls a year. She now sells 1,000 a year, both custom-made and off-the-rack, and supplies 20 to 30 weddings.

She said: “When you see someone in dirndl or lederhosen they look wonderful, and you are really disappointed later when you see them in normal clothes. The dirndls in particular are very sexy and feminine.

“For women there are bright colors and modern styles, but for men you can’t really do lederhosen in a modern way. In my opinion, there’s nothing nicer than a real, traditional lederhosen.”

Of course, most people can’t afford to buy their outfits from designers like Paltinger. You can pick up a new dirndl for 50 to 60 euros or lederhosen for 120 euros, according to Karoline Graf of the Munich Tourist Office, and there is a thriving second-hand market.

Paltinger said: “Many, many shops sell dirndl and lederhosen in the run up to the Oktoberfest. Some of them just open up especially and sell them very cheaply, made in India. It’s a big business.

“Some people say it’s not good to sell cheap ones, but I think it’s really nice that so many young people want to wear them and pay homage to Bavarian tradition.”

Angermaier, a traditional clothes business with two stores in Munich and other temporary stores in high season, has seen lederhosen sales double over the past 10 years. Sales of dirndls have risen 500% over the same period.

Axel Munz, director of the company, said: “The customers have become younger and more trendy. Fashion has found its way into tracht (traditional costumes).

“People wear traditional costumes at weddings, special events or folk festivals, but mainly they wear it at the Oktoberfest.”

Egger, a researcher at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, wrote a diploma thesis on the popularity of traditional Bavarian costumes.

She said: “About 10 years ago I noticed all the young people wearing dirndl and lederhosen and thought ‘what’s going on?’ I’m a cultural scientist so I wanted to find out why.

“At the beginning, it was just for the Oktoberfest, but now it is for parties and sometimes weddings. Nowadays pretty much everybody in Munich and the surrounding region has at least one traditional outfit.”

She added: “The choice to wear traditional costumes appears to be more than just a fashion trend.

“Possibly, a mobile society wishes to demonstrate affiliation. In times of international networking, local and regional references become even more important.”

She added that the first to take up the fashion were 16 to 18-year-olds who felt free to wear traditional costume precisely because there was no pressure from their parents to do so.

Gabriele Hammerschick, chief buyer of traditional clothes for the clothes store Lodenfrey, said customers had become younger in recent years and bought dirndl and lederhosen all year round for weddings, parties, christenings, Christmas and of course, Oktoberfest.

She said people had rediscovered tradition for its permanence in a fast-paced world.

Graf said: “Twenty years ago, no young men or women would go out in traditional costume because it wasn’t fashionable.

“Loved, Engaged, Lost” – A documentary that tells the love story between women from former East Germany and North Korean men sent to the former Communist nation for studying. A relationship with painful consequences.

The eyes of the protagonists in Sung-Hyung Cho’s “Loved, Engaged, Lost” reveal that their roots do not lie in the former German Democratic Republic, at least not entirely. They grew up with their mothers in the ex-Communist nation, but their fathers come from North Korea.

The men were sent to East Germany by the North Korean government during the 1950s – some of them during the Korean War – to attend university and later use their knowledge to re-build their war-torn nation.

During their stay, however, some of the men entered relationships with East German women. But the children born out of these relations did not see their fathers for long, as the men were ordered to return to their homeland in the 1960s, resulting in a break-up of the families.

A documentary film made by Sung-Hyung Cho, which premiered in Germany on June 25, tells the stories of these families and takes a look at their lives. Although there is no precise figure on the number of families affected, the director is aware of 18 such cases. In a DW interview, Sung-Hyung Cho talks about the idea behind the film and her experiences in making it.

Sung-Hyung: ‘It wasn’t easy at first to win over the support of the protagonists’

DW: What was the idea behind the film?

Sung-Hyung Cho: The story of Renate Hong was very popular in South Korea. In 2006, her story became the talk of the town after a South Korean historian – who had conducted some research in Jena about the relationship between North Korea and East Germany – met Renate Hong by chance.

She narrated her story, and he propagated it on the Internet. The response was overwhelming. The Koreans were blown away by the sad but beautiful love story.

Most Koreans, myself included, know the story. Moreover, I was greatly interested in knowing and better understanding former East Germany. I also wanted to know more about North Korea, even if only indirectly.

How did you manage to find the films’ protagonists?

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It wasn’t easy at first to win over the support of the protagonists, especially given that this is both a painful subject and an unsolved issue for most of them. It was especially hard for them to reminisce about their past relationships.

As a result, many didn’t want to be reminded of it, let lone talk about it. In addition, they were cautious and distrustful of the media.

However, the fact that I’ve been regularly attending the meetings of these German-Korean families helped me in terms of slowly earning their trust. A couple of years later, they probably asked themselves when this Korean woman would finally shoot the film about them.

Do you know of stories in which children got to meet their fathers and their love for each other stood the test of time?

The Hong family eventually managed to track down the father. Renate and her sons ultimately traveled to North Korea for what turned out to be a very emotional, touching but also peculiar reunion following so many years of separation.

In your view, how do these children, who are now grown-ups, feel about their North Korean fathers?

Just like anywhere else, this depends on the child. What they all have in common is a longing to get to meet their respective fathers or at least learn something about their lives. They are very curious, asking themselves who the man is, what he has achieved and whether he is even alive. But tracking these men down is often extremely difficult.

How do the women mostly remember their former partners?

In different ways. Some decided at some point to distance themselves emotionally and go about their lives as if their partner had died. Others, however, tried to keep the memory alive and to simply come to terms with the situation. And then there are others who decided to actively track them down.

The story of Renate Hong was very popular in South Korea

To which extent does the children’s Korean background play a role in their daily lives?

Those are their roots. And even though some of these parents remain unknown to them, these roots remain and simply do not disappear. It sometimes plays a bigger role and sometimes a lesser one. But the father’s influence is always reflected in the children’s physical appearance.

Have you yourself tried to track down and contact one of the fathers?

This was mainly done by the children. There are even German-Korean associations to assist in this regard.

Is there a single story that has touched you in a special way?

Each story is extremely touching in its own way, so I can’t just pick one. The story of the Hong family was the first one I ever heard, but then came so many others and each one of them was moving and touching.

Born in South Korea, Sung Hyung Cho is a Germany-based editor and director, known for Full Metal Village (2006), Endstation der Sehnsüchte (2009) and 11 Freundinnen (2013).

A new film made by Sung-Hyung Cho attempts to give outsiders an insight into life in North Korea. The director, who even had to give up her South Korean nationality to shoot the film, spoke to DW about the project.

Cho Sung-hyung (born 1966) is an award-winning German, film maker, director, editor and professor living and working in Germanywith South Korean roots. She was born in Busan and grew up in Soeul and got German citizenship in 2016 due her documentary My brothers and sisters to the North.

Cho was an assistant editor for the German television series Ein Fall für zwei, also working on documentaries and music videos. Her documentary Full Metal Village received the Hessian Film Award in 2006 and the Max Ophüls Prize and was named best documentary by the Guild of German Art House Cinemas in 2007.[1] In 2016, Cho had filmed and was starring in the documentary Meine Brüder und Schwestern in Nordkorea – other international titles: Meine Brüder und Schwestern im Norden[3], My brothers and sisters to the North[4]. She was the first South Korean director who was allowed to visit North Korea after Korean Warwithout being charged for treason by South Korea, because she has a German passport. She gave up South Korean citizenship and took the German one just for making this documentary and getting a visa and the permission of shooting from North Korea.[5]

“The first time I removed a sticker, I felt so good that I had done something,” Irmela Mensah-Schramm says.

“Mensah-Schramm—who looks like a kindly grandmother, with her white hair and smiling face—has been physically assaulted by neo-Nazis, threatened with fines by authorities, and derided by those around her, but still she looks for hateful stickers on letterboxes, road signs, and lampposts. She photographs them, and either scrapes them off or sprays over them. Her eagle eye notices stickers that most passers-by never spot. . . . . . . . ”

Today, Peter wrote the following letter to his daughter Gaby who passed away five years ago:

Dear Gaby,
today would be your birthday and I’m sure we would have visited. Sixty years is an enormous number but you did not quite make it. Your fiftieth birthday comes to mind for which you organised a big party for your friends and relatives. It was a great occasion, we will never forget. We even danced together. I’m sure you would have organised something for your sixties too. Perhaps some of your carers are having
a drink at the Parramatta Leagues Club to remember you. There is a picture with all of them. They were more than just carers, they were your good friends and were with you right to the very end. Your life was a shining example of how one should live. You showed us not to despair and to accept the things we can’t change and make the most of it. With this lesson in mind, we have accepted your life and your passing. Memories can be bitter and sweet but we stick to the good memories. Our thoughts are with you every day of our lives but more so today. Mum and I, we wish we could be with you and give you a big hug. XO

“Last Sunday turned out to be a lovely family day at our home. It was beautiful to be surrounded by children, grand-children, and great grand-children for a few hours in the afternoon. Some almond-cake was left from Gaby’s birthday. There was also freshly baked cheese-cake. Peter had baked this cake!”

There is a picture of Peter’s freshly baked cheese-cake and another picture that was taken on Gaby’s birthday in 2015. The birthday picture shows an almond cake as well as a picture of Gaby and some flowers. Following this are some pictures with three year old Lucas and eleven months old Alexander in it and I mentioned that our daughter Monika took these pictures of her grandsons an sent them to me for my post.